Artist Simon Donovan

Simon Donovan - Artist Statement

“The sky is falling.”

In the summer of 1971, when I was twelve, I stayed with my grandmother, in a small city just outside of Boston. My grandfather had died a few months before. Due to her inability to adjust, she slept downstairs on a foldout couch while I slept upstairs in their bed. One night after falling asleep to the sound of teenagers playing basketball at the nearby park, I was awakened suddenly to the sound of crashing. I lay on the bed and above me the ceiling was caving in. Shards of metal, wood, plaster, glass and sky were all hurtling toward me. It was a split second that seemed like an eternity. Then just as abruptly - it stopped. The gut-wrenching sound wound down like a record player coming slowly to a halt. I sat up terrified, disoriented. I ran for my grandmother. Was it an earthquake? A plane crash? A nuclear bomb?

But there was nothing and when she accompanied me to inspect the ceiling of her room all was normal, quiet.

Sometimes ideas percolate for a while before I get around to seeing them manifest. I have been sketching these forms for thirty-five years, always unconsciously while listening or talking with my mind occupied with other matters. These drawings sat outside my formal concerns as an artist, they seemed like just a neurotic impulse to create harmony balance and form out of discordant shapes. They have become my personal vocabulary. It seemed time to give them three-dimensional physical form.

Yes, I suppose they are loaded with all types of unconscious associated forms: crowns, birds, fish, pope hats, crosses, all likely detritus of my Catholic upbringing. Whatever. Certainly the expression of those things are just incidental to my intent. I simply seek to restore order and wholeness to the ceiling above me. Am I forcing a metaphor? Maybe.

Simon Donovan 2007

Resume

Awards

2003 Public Works Project of the Year, American Public Works Association

2002 Arizona Arts Award, Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, $25,000

2002 Federal Highway Award of Excellence in Design

1997 Visual Art Fellowship, Tucson/Pima Arts Council, $3000

Collections

Tucson Museum of Art

City of Tucson

City of Phoenix

City of Mesa

Tucson International Airport

Professional Experience

Tucson Downtown Alliance Urban Design Committee, member 2003, 2004, 2005
Open Studio: The Arts Online, Multimedia Fellowship 1999-2000
Tucson/Pima Arts Council ArtWORKS!, Public Art & Community Youth Program, 1999-2006
Tucson Master Planning Design Charrettes, The Aesthetics of Parking, team member, 2000
Tucson Gateway Feature, team member, 1997
Redesigning the Landfill, team member, 1997

Selected Project Experience

Mesa Arizona Bus Shelter, Public Art Commission, 2006 Consists of steel, cast concrete & a ceiling of life-size color photographic images on polycarbonate sheets. $34,000

Purple Heart Park Memorial Wall, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ 2006
Consists of a sandstone u-shaped wall, purple glass , stone bench with quote by Thomas Moore. $7,700

Pennington Street Garage, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ 2004-2005
A Tucson Department of Transportation Project, an illuminated aluminum / glass design to encircle the new downtown parking facility. Art Budget $71,000

El Pueblo Neighborhood Center, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ 2003-2005
In collaboration with Geoff Demark, Ben Olmstead. Shade structures of perforated aluminum and glass marbles. Art Budget of $19,500

Mountain Avenue Improvement, Phase III, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ 2002
A Tucson Department of Transportation Project, In collaboration with Geoff Demark. Roadway sculpture, hardscape design, bus shelters. Stone, glass, steel, fiber optics. Art budget of $63,000

Primavera Foundation & Primavera Builders, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ 2002
In collaboration with Geoff DeMark. We created a commemorative donor wall of etched glass, adobe brick & sandblasted designs on corrugated steel. $8000. Art budget. Completed 2002

Parkwise Art Shuttle Bus, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ. 2000
A painted and digital photograph / decal bus for The Tucson Department of Transportation TICET program. Completed February 2000

Wetmore / Ruthrauff Roads Improvement Project, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ. 1999
A Pima County Department of Transportation Roadway Project in coordination with Collins-Pina Consulting Engineers. This is a $6.2 million project with an art budget of $140,000. As a design team member, I was initial co-designer of sound buffer wall designs. The scope of the project is the construction of a four-lane roadway from La Cholla Blvd. to Fairview Ave. Projected completion is 2005

Community Resource Center, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ. 1998
This project was in coordination with Merry Carnell Schlecht, Inc. and Sage Landscape Architects for the City of Tucson and The United Way. The project budget was $3.9 million; the art budget is $30,000. As artist / planner I contributed to design details of the building complex and plaza design, this included the fabrication of a water feature, the plaza floor and three monumental sculptures inspired by Hohokam artifacts found at project site. I initiated the establishment of an Arizona State Museum satellite display of the actual artifacts in the community-building lobby. Project included working with the Tohono O’Odham Tribe. Completed May 2000

Sahuarita Gateway Monument, Community Based Public Art Project, Sahuarita, AZ. 1999
I was the artist supervisor of a summer project directing a dozen high school students in the creation of town monument made of steel, glass, tile and concrete artificial rock. Completed August 1999

Tucson House Memorial Rose Garden, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ. 1998
This project is in coordination with Richard Green, R.L.A. and the Tucson House Community in the creation of a rose garden with a gazebo structure & poetry engraved walkways. This is part of a $3 million dollar renovation of Tucson House by Poster Frost Associates Inc. The art budget is $30,000. My role was co-designer, fabricator and community liaison. Completed December 1999

Splash-Dash, Mountain Vista Park, Public Art Commission, Phoenix, AZ. 1998
A City of Phoenix Park Department Project, in collaboration with artist Alex Garza & Richard Green R.L.A. With a budget of $75,000 we designed and fabricated a water play area for children with a poured in place rubberized surface and sequenced timed water jets. Approximately 1000 sq. ft. Completed June 2001

Diamondback Bridge over Broadway Blvd., Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ. 1997
In coordination with TY LIN International Engineering I designed a $2.7 million, 300' long pedestrian / bicycle bridge in the shape of a diamondback rattlesnake spanning over Broadway Blvd., downtown. Tucson Department of Transportation. Artist fee for design and overseeing of fabrication $24,000. The bridge has received nine awards, including American Public Works Project of the Year 2003. Completed May 2002

Woods Memorial Library, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ. 1996
As part of the City of Tucson’s library renovation project of $1.5 million by Burns Wald & Hopkins Architects, I created 101"Flying books” cut from steel and painted, surrounding the exterior of the entire building. Art budget was $15,000. Completed February 1997

Teaching Experience

ArtWORKS! Academy, a TPAC / TUSD partnership, 1999-2006, Interim Director 2006

Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana, Summer Program Artist in Residence, 2003

Arizona International College, Mentor Program, 2000-2002

Tucson Museum of Art School, Tucson, AZ. Instructor of drawing and painting, mentor, 1987-99



	Simon Donovan - Artist Statement “The sky is falling.” In the summer of 1971, when I was twelve, I stayed with my grandmother, in a small city just outside of Boston. My grandfather had died a few months before. Due to her inability to adjust, she slept downstairs on a foldout couch while I slept upstairs in their bed. One night after falling asleep to the sound of teenagers playing basketball at the nearby park, I was awakened suddenly to the sound of crashing. I lay on the bed and above me the ceiling was caving in. Shards of metal, wood, plaster, glass and sky were all hurtling toward me. It was a split second that seemed like an eternity. Then just as abruptly - it stopped. The gut-wrenching sound wound down like a record player coming slowly to a halt. I sat up terrified, disoriented. I ran for my grandmother. Was it an earthquake? A plane crash? A nuclear bomb? But there was nothing and when she accompanied me to inspect the ceiling of her room all was normal, quiet. Sometimes ideas percolate for a while before I get around to seeing them manifest. I have been sketching these forms for thirty-five years, always unconsciously while listening or talking with my mind occupied with other matters. These drawings sat outside my formal concerns as an artist, they seemed like just a neurotic impulse to create harmony balance and form out of discordant shapes. They have become my personal vocabulary. It seemed time to give them three-dimensional physical form. Yes, I suppose they are loaded with all types of unconscious associated forms: crowns, birds, fish, pope hats, crosses, all likely detritus of my Catholic upbringing. Whatever. Certainly the expression of those things are just incidental to my intent. I simply seek to restore order and wholeness to the ceiling above me. Am I forcing a metaphor? Maybe. Simon Donovan 2007 Resume Education B.F.A. Rhode Island School of Design Phillips Andover Academy, Institute of Visual Studies Exhibitions Solo: 2006 - 2001 Temple of Music & Art, Tucson, AZ 2006, 2003, 2002, 1997 Obsidian Gallery, Tucson, AZ 2005 New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 2005 Tucson Museum of Art, Painted Metal, Tucson, AZ 2005, 2002 Raices Gallery, Tucson, AZ 2005, 1990, 1989, 1988 Dinnerware Gallery, Tucson, AZ 2003, 1996 Etherton Gallery, Tucson, AZ 2002, 2001 Canyon Ranch Gallery, Tucson, AZ 2001 Tucson Museum of Art, Biennial, Tucson, AZ 2000 - 1995 Apparatus Gallery, Tucson, AZ 1999 - 1998 Hacienda Del Sol Gallery, Tucson, AZ 1997 Raw Gallery, Tucson, AZ 1997 - 1988 Tucson Museum of Art Faculty Show, TMA 1996 University of Massachusetts, Harbor Gallery, Boston, MA 1996 - 1995 Montez, Masterpieces of New Mexican Art, Santa Fe, NM, Scottsdale, AZ 1995 Blue Star Gallery, San Antonio, TX 1994 Scottsdale Center of the Arts, Scottsdale, AZ 1994, 1992 Tubac Center of the Art, Tubac, AZ 1990 Tohono Chul Gallery, Tucson, AZ 1988 Central Arts Gallery, Tucson, AZ. Awards 2003 Public Works Project of the Year, American Public Works Association 2002 Arizona Arts Award, Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, $25,000 2002 Federal Highway Award of Excellence in Design 1997 Visual Art Fellowship, Tucson/Pima Arts Council, $3000 Collections Tucson Museum of Art City of Tucson City of Phoenix City of Mesa Tucson International Airport Professional Experience Tucson Downtown Alliance Urban Design Committee, member 2003, 2004, 2005 Open Studio: The Arts Online, Multimedia Fellowship 1999-2000 Tucson/Pima Arts Council ArtWORKS!, Public Art & Community Youth Program, 1999-2006 Tucson Master Planning Design Charrettes, The Aesthetics of Parking, team member, 2000 Tucson Gateway Feature, team member, 1997 Redesigning the Landfill, team member, 1997 Selected Project Experience Mesa Arizona Bus Shelter, Public Art Commission, 2006 Consists of steel, cast concrete & a ceiling of life-size color photographic images on polycarbonate sheets. $34,000 Purple Heart Park Memorial Wall, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ 2006 Consists of a sandstone u-shaped wall, purple glass , stone bench with quote by Thomas Moore. $7,700 Pennington Street Garage, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ 2004-2005 A Tucson Department of Transportation Project, an illuminated aluminum / glass design to encircle the new downtown parking facility. Art Budget $71,000 El Pueblo Neighborhood Center, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ 2003-2005 In collaboration with Geoff Demark, Ben Olmstead. Shade structures of perforated aluminum and glass marbles. Art Budget of $19,500 Mountain Avenue Improvement, Phase III, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ 2002 A Tucson Department of Transportation Project, In collaboration with Geoff Demark. Roadway sculpture, hardscape design, bus shelters. Stone, glass, steel, fiber optics. Art budget of $63,000 Primavera Foundation & Primavera Builders, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ 2002 In collaboration with Geoff DeMark. We created a commemorative donor wall of etched glass, adobe brick & sandblasted designs on corrugated steel. $8000. Art budget. Completed 2002 Parkwise Art Shuttle Bus, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ. 2000 A painted and digital photograph / decal bus for The Tucson Department of Transportation TICET program. Completed February 2000 Wetmore / Ruthrauff Roads Improvement Project, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ. 1999 A Pima County Department of Transportation Roadway Project in coordination with Collins-Pina Consulting Engineers. This is a $6.2 million project with an art budget of $140,000. As a design team member, I was initial co-designer of sound buffer wall designs. The scope of the project is the construction of a four-lane roadway from La Cholla Blvd. to Fairview Ave. Projected completion is 2005 Community Resource Center, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ. 1998 This project was in coordination with Merry Carnell Schlecht, Inc. and Sage Landscape Architects for the City of Tucson and The United Way. The project budget was $3.9 million; the art budget is $30,000. As artist / planner I contributed to design details of the building complex and plaza design, this included the fabrication of a water feature, the plaza floor and three monumental sculptures inspired by Hohokam artifacts found at project site. I initiated the establishment of an Arizona State Museum satellite display of the actual artifacts in the community-building lobby. Project included working with the Tohono O’Odham Tribe. Completed May 2000 Sahuarita Gateway Monument, Community Based Public Art Project, Sahuarita, AZ. 1999 I was the artist supervisor of a summer project directing a dozen high school students in the creation of town monument made of steel, glass, tile and concrete artificial rock. Completed August 1999 Tucson House Memorial Rose Garden, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ. 1998 This project is in coordination with Richard Green, R.L.A. and the Tucson House Community in the creation of a rose garden with a gazebo structure & poetry engraved walkways. This is part of a $3 million dollar renovation of Tucson House by Poster Frost Associates Inc. The art budget is $30,000. My role was co-designer, fabricator and community liaison. Completed December 1999 Splash-Dash, Mountain Vista Park, Public Art Commission, Phoenix, AZ. 1998 A City of Phoenix Park Department Project, in collaboration with artist Alex Garza & Richard Green R.L.A. With a budget of $75,000 we designed and fabricated a water play area for children with a poured in place rubberized surface and sequenced timed water jets. Approximately 1000 sq. ft. Completed June 2001 Diamondback Bridge over Broadway Blvd., Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ. 1997 In coordination with TY LIN International Engineering I designed a $2.7 million, 300' long pedestrian / bicycle bridge in the shape of a diamondback rattlesnake spanning over Broadway Blvd., downtown. Tucson Department of Transportation. Artist fee for design and overseeing of fabrication $24,000. The bridge has received nine awards, including American Public Works Project of the Year 2003. Completed May 2002 Woods Memorial Library, Public Art Commission, Tucson, AZ. 1996 As part of the City of Tucson’s library renovation project of $1.5 million by Burns Wald & Hopkins Architects, I created 101"Flying books” cut from steel and painted, surrounding the exterior of the entire building. Art budget was $15,000. Completed February 1997 Teaching Experience ArtWORKS! Academy, a TPAC / TUSD partnership, 1999-2006, Interim Director 2006 Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana, Summer Program Artist in Residence, 2003 Arizona International College, Mentor Program, 2000-2002 Tucson Museum of Art School, Tucson, AZ. Instructor of drawing and painting, mentor, 1987-99





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